[SciPy-User] Distributing SciPy and NumPy

[Benjamin Root]

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 9:04 AM, K.-Michael Aye <kmichael.aye at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 2010-05-10 15:18:22 +0200, Ram Rachum said:
>
> > Dag Sverre Seljebotn <dagss <at> student.matnat.uio.no> writes:
> >
> >>
> >> cool-RR wrote:
> >>
> >>> Are there any licensing issues I should be aware of? Is there any LGPL
> >>> or GPL licensing in there?
> >>
> >> You need a LAPACK implementation to use SciPy, and those come with
> >> various licenses. But SciPy+ATLAS is a common combination which is all
> BSD.
> >>
> >> SciPy developers are pretty conscious about keeping GPL or LGPL code out
> >> of the main SciPy library (though some scikits libraries are under GPL).
> >>
> >> Dag Sverre
> >>
> >
> > Hey Dag,
> >
> > I've installed numpy and scipy using the standard installers from the
> website.
> > (Not EPD or Python(x,y)). Is this installation free of any GPL/LGPL?
>
> Please excuse my ignorance respectively my legal insecurity, but am I
> right in assuming, that the only 'problem' I would have with scipy or
> numpy being released under GPL/LGPL, if I were to release my app NOT
> under GPL/LGPL?
>
The GPL/LGPL is a distribution license, so it can only dictate terms for
redistribution of code.
Software using GPL'ed code must also be released under a GPL-compatible
license.  All of the source codes (including changes you made to the
original code) must remain open. Software using LGPL'ed code can be released
using other licenses, but the LGPL'ed code (and any changes you made to it)
must remain open.

It is best practice to have the source code accompany the software package,
but as far as I understand, this isn't a requirement so long as the code is
available by request.  Someone else can correct me on this.


> In other words, if i release my app using libraries under GPL/LPGL, all
> I have to worry is, to release it the same way, right? (Assuming I
> don't want to earn money with it).
>

Argh!  You can make money on open source code!  This isn't the proper place
to discuss it, but the open-source community is not a charity case.
Open-source is a very viable business model.


> This legal stuff confuses the hell outta me... :S
>

Same here.  Also, IANAL, so this isn't legal advice, merely the distillation
of various discussions on this topic.

Sincerely,
Ben Root


>
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